On the Current Health of Commercial Galleries

Image: courtesy Sydney Contemporary 2015.

On the state of the commercial gallery scene:

"We opened the gallery in 2012 when it was in a real lull. It has increasingly been better in the last three years. Hopefully it continues to go up."
- Samantha Ferris, Galerie pompom, Sydney

"Not surprisingly it's competitive. There are now a lot of private commercial galleries competing for the attention of people interested in buying art. Many private galleries share the same clients. The anticipation of reviews in weekly newspapers is becoming a thing of the past. New journals, blogs, many online provide new fora for comment and publicity. Online publishing allows galleries to cheaply create their own documents containing images and essays used to promote their artists."
- Sonia Legge, Watters Gallery, Sydney

"The commercial gallery scene is smaller in Adelaide but we have a really strong local collector base which keeps it going for us, and also we have a fantastic state gallery that brings a lot of collectors from interstate down for exhibitions. It's fairly small but very strong."
- Hugo Mitchell, Hugo Mitchell Gallery, Adelaide

"It's been good. Sales have been really strong for us. We have just been over three years in business. It's interesting month to month. It's partly related to exhibitions, but we sell a lot outside of exhibitions as well. You can see it with our monthly figures; we keep on having our biggest month ever but then it might be interspersed by a really quiet month."
- Amanda Rothwell, The Commercial, Sydney

"The commercial art scene seems to be fairly consistent at the moment. Artists continue to make great work and Melbourne institutions are putting on strong shows which helps build interest in the arts. The spate of gallery closures that we saw a couple of years ago seems to have abated and collectors are recovering confidence."
- Nicola Stein, THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne

"It's getting better and Sydney Contemporary will be great for the commercial scene in Sydney."
- Joanna Strumpf, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney

"I think it's definitely doing a lot better at the moment. It's quite healthy and it's improved over the last year. We've been happy with sales recently, the way the work has been received and with audience numbers. It feels like it has never quite bounced back to pre-GFC. I think there's positives and negatives to that. One of the things about the state of the art world at the moment is that people seem to put a lot more thought into their acquisitions. You don't get as much sporadic spur of the moment buying however the flipside of that, which is really lovely, is that there is more engagement with the work, people are spending more money in thinking about art, talking about art and its based on a process that is much more thoughtful. That can be really nice and that's a really lovely way to sell work."
- Rhianna Walcott, Artereal Gallery, Sydney

On the challenges the commercial gallery sector faces:

"Gallery visitation is a big challenge, that's why the art fair is so great. People come here to the one space. Weekly gallery visitor numbers are a bit low; sometimes you can have very quiet weeks and that's not very good. We're in street locations with high rents, that's certainly a big challenge. I don't know whether attendance is going to increase because of the way people organise their leisure time, whether it's because people are looking at art online or just going to festivals or waiting for art fairs."
- Samantha Ferris, Galerie pompom, Sydney

"Making sure that I'm not just selling to my South Australian clients, that I'm finding my clients nationally and internationally, this is what I think personally is a challenge. I think it's a dangerous thing in Adelaide in placing these works with all of your very good collectors in one state. That's why fairs like this are very important."

- Hugo Mitchell, Hugo Mitchell Gallery, Adelaide

"If the commercial gallery system is seen as the biggest provider of 'grants' to living Australian artists, anything that draws funds away from galleries ultimately challenges the prospects of all artists. This includes but is not limited to (the increasing number of) art prizes that charge high rates of commission."

- Sonia Legge, Watters Gallery, Sydney

"A really big issues in Sydney is artist studios. Rent is so expensive here that artists can't afford to have studios. A number of my artists make work in their bedrooms and that limits what they can do. Australia Council funding has gone awry recently and that's a big challenge."
- Amanda Rothwell, The Commercial, Sydney

"The commercial art scene in Melbourne, as in the rest of Australia, is rapidly changing. As a gallery its important to be proactive; with the growth of the internet and social media there is less foot traffic to galleries and you need to go where the collectors are. Art fairs have become a major part of the art calendar and the place collectors congregate so it makes sense to show there. The Australian collector base is fairly small and with local collectors increasingly travelling abroad and broadening the focus of their collections to include works by overseas artists, its also important for local galleries to maintain relevance and engage an international audience.

The Brandis cuts to arts funding were very unsettling and have had far reaching consequences, with less support available for artists to develop their practices both locally and internationally and less governmental assistance to organisations and galleries to promote the work of Australian artists internationally. "

"It's a very expensive exercise to run a gallery and that takes collectors, institutions, the media, all of these things to come together to support the artists' exhibitions and to buy, to pay their invoices in a timely fashion. It's one thing to make a sale but cash-flow can be a real killer particularly for smaller galleries."
- Joanna Strumpf, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney

"I think everyone has had to redefine their roles over the last few years. Commercial galleries have to constantly stay on their toes and rethink the model they are using and make sure that they are keeping up with the times. For artists there have been a lot of gallery closures over the last few years; it's more competitive than ever. It's definitely a lot tougher for artists at the moment. We're going through a period of change that's always really exciting. There seem to be a lot of new artists and new galleries coming to the fore and change keeps things fresh and exciting."
- Rhianna Walcott, Artereal Gallery, Sydney

"The commercial scene has always been complicated. In fact you’ve got to think of the art first and money second and so It's not really about going out to make money. Its going out to make good art. There's not an immediate currency for very good work. For instance an artist may have a very good exhibition but nothing sells. Then two years later the artist has another exhibition and nothing sells but the art is being gradually absorbed and the artist has challenged the viewer, but is not getting an immediate reward for it. But if over their life they are intelligent and they are capable, and they are determined they go on doing it, then they're worthwhile following and their work gets picked up."
- Stuart Purves, Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney

On the growth of online sales and trade and its impact on commercial galleries:

"We have a presence, when I speak to people they say there's definitely ‘pompom flavour’ and that there's something that comes through that identifies it as us. In terms of sales we use email for sending images. For the Fair we had a couple of pre-sales that were completely online and the works hadn't been seen yet by the people who purchased them."

- Samantha Ferris, Galerie pompom, Sydney

"An increasing number of people contact the gallery online with questions regarding artists and artworks."
- Sonia Legge, Watters Gallery, Sydney

"Online has always helped and it's getting better. (It's about) people having confidence in your gallery. That's why it's important to be here (at the Fair). People know what you do and have confidence to buy online. Online is getting stronger and stronger, and is in a state of change at the moment."
- Hugo Mitchell, Hugo Mitchell Gallery, Adelaide

"The changing online environment has been of benefit to us with online sales increasing in the past few years. The fact that the gallery has an active website and social media profile is an important part of this. Having a physical gallery space and holding regular exhibitions both in the gallery and offsite, many internationally, is also an important part of our growth in online sales. Once collectors have seen an artist's work in the flesh and have a sense of their practice they are far more willing to commit to buying a work from an image. The gallery having a physical bricks and mortar base also inspires confidence in collectors."

- Nicola Stein, THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne

"For us its been a really big part of the gallery. We do a lot of sales via email, more and more. We are also selling more and more internationally and interstate as a result of both the website and sales over email. Instagram has been particularly amazing for us and we find that we just have this incredible sense of audience engagement on this platform. People feel really connected to the artists and the gallery through this platform and we have had a lot of sales come through this channel which we would not have anticipated. I think it's definitely changing the way the gallery is doing business. Personally I think bricks and mortar galleries will always be important. It's important for artists to show the work and feel that it's out there for the public to view. Nothing will ever replace that."
- Rhianna Walcott, Artereal Gallery, Sydney